We learn from press reports that Ireland’s tourism agencies have spent more than €1 million paying influencers to promote holiday destinations, since the beginning of 2025.
That is a substantial amount of public money and it deserves more than impressive claims about followers, views and “audience reach.” It deserves transparent evidence that these campaigns generated additional visitors, bookings and revenue. Tourism has certainly improved. Ireland welcomed more than 3.2 million overseas visitors during the first half of 2026; 15% more than in the same period of 2025. Their spending increased by 18% to €2.6 billion.
Those are encouraging figures, but they do not prove that influencer marketing produced the recovery. Tourism is affected by airline capacity, ferry connections, weather, exchange rates, prices, consumer confidence and many other forms of advertising. An influencer reaching millions of social-media accounts is not the same as delivering millions of tourists. A view is not a booking, a “like” is not a hotel stay, and a follower is not necessarily a prospective visitor.
This distinction is particularly important for Tipperary. The county’s tourism performance during 2025 was positive but mixed. Sixty per cent of tourism businesses reported growth and 14% remained stable, while 26% experienced a decline. Attractions and activity providers performed well, with 82% growing or maintaining attendance.
However, accommodation businesses had a more difficult experience: 34% reported a decline, while shorter stays and later bookings remained significant problems. Much of Tipperary’s strength also came from domestic residents and day-trippers. An impressive 94% of attractions maintained or increased their Ireland-based visitors.
That is good news, but it does not demonstrate that paid influencer visits generated significant additional tourism. In fact, favourable weather, local engagement, repeat visitors and domestic day trips were identified as important reasons for Tipperary’s performance.
Tipperary does has a tourism product that should be capable of selling itself internationally: the Rock of Cashel, Cahir Castle, Lough Derg, the Glen of Aherlow, the Galtee Mountains, Holycross Abbey and a rich combination of history, food, outdoor recreation and authentic rural communities. The county’s challenge is not simply attracting social-media attention. It is converting interest and day trips into overnight stays, encouraging visitors to explore beyond the best-known locations and ensuring that tourism spending reaches local accommodation providers, restaurants, shops and communities.
There is a legitimate place for digital creators in modern tourism promotion. Social media influences approximately 23 – 24% of potential visitors looking for holiday inspiration. However, recommendations and online searches are even more influential.
The biggest reason people choose Ireland is not celebrity endorsement. It is the country itself. Tourism Ireland’s research shows that scenery is the leading reason for choosing Ireland, cited by 33% of potential visitors. It is followed by Culture, Sightseeing and History. Historic Sites, Food and Drink, Walking, Hiking and Nature have exceptionally broad appeal. The public should therefore be asking whether enough money is being invested directly in the things visitors actually come to experience: heritage conservation, trails, public transport, visitor facilities, signage, accessibility, accommodation capacity and effective booking systems.
The strongest criticism is not that every influencer campaign is wasteful. We do not have the evidence to make that claim. The problem is that the agencies have not publicly demonstrated the opposite.
After spending more than €1 million, reporting enormous audience reach is inadequate. The agencies should now publish, for every major campaign: The total fee and associated travel costs. The audience and markets targeted. Engagement from relevant prospective visitors. Confirmed bookings or attributable visitor spending. Cost per booking and return on public investment. Honest regional results, including overnight stays generated in counties such as Tipperary. (Remembering no establishment likes to report decline.)
If those measurements show that influencer marketing works, the agencies will have a strong case for continuing it. If they cannot produce them, taxpayers are entitled to question whether public money is supporting tourism, or merely subsidising attractive trips and highly polished social-media content.
Ireland’s tourism recovery is welcome. Tipperary’s attractions are showing real resilience. But neither development gives tourism agencies a blank cheque.
Publicity is not performance. Reach is not revenue. Public money must produce measurable public value.
“Look up at the stars, not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and be curious.” Quote: late Stephen Hawking [1942 – 2018]. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Late Irish author Oscar Wilde, [1854 – 1900], (Lady Windermere’s Fan).
Residents across Tipperary are being encouraged to look skyward this evening as Ireland prepares for one of its most memorable astronomical displays in decades.
A deep partial solar eclipse will unfold between approximately 6.10pm and 8.10pm, reaching its maximum shortly after 7pm. Exact timings and the amount of the Sun covered will vary slightly from place to place as the Moon’s shadow travels across the country.
Although Ireland lies outside the path of totality, the spectacle will still be dramatic. The Moon is expected to hide well over 90 per cent of the Sun from Irish observers. Only a thin, bright crescent will remain visible at the height of the event, producing an unusual change in daylight and possibly a noticeable dip in temperature.
The eclipse is especially important because Ireland will not experience another comparable solar event until 2090. It offers families, schools and amateur astronomers a rare opportunity to witness the movements of the Sun, Moon and Earth directly.
People in Tipperary should choose a viewing location with a clear outlook facing towards the western sky. Open countryside and elevated areas may provide better prospects, provided they can be reached safely. Clouds are forecast in parts of the Premier County, but even brief breaks could reveal the shrinking solar crescent.
Eye protection is essential throughout the eclipse. Looking directly at the Sun, even when most of it is hidden, can cause permanent damage to eyesight. Ordinary sunglasses, smoked glass and homemade filters are not safe. Observers should use undamaged eclipse glasses meeting the ISO 12312-2 safety standard or watch indirectly with a pinhole projector. Cameras, binoculars and telescopes require purpose-made solar filters attached securely to the front. Eclipse glasses alone do not make magnifying equipment safe.
Ireland will see a partial eclipse because the narrow path in which the Sun is completely concealed passes through areas including Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain. Nevertheless, the Royal Observatory Greenwich says roughly 90 to 96 per cent of the Sun will be covered across Ireland and the UK, making this the deepest partial eclipse seen from these islands in almost 27 years. Royal Observatory Greenwich
The entertainment will not end at sunset. During the night of August 12th into the morning of August 13th, the annual Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak. The Perseids occur when Earth passes through debris left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. Tiny particles strike the atmosphere at tremendous speed, heat up and produce the bright streaks commonly called shooting stars. Under ideal dark-sky conditions, observers may see dozens of meteors in an hour, although actual numbers can vary.
Conditions are unusually favourable in 2026 because the shower coincides with a new Moon. Thus, with virtually no strong moonlight washing out the fainter meteors, cloud cover and artificial lighting will only be the main obstacles. The strongest viewing window is expected between midnight and dawn.
No telescope is needed for the Perseids. Viewers should find a safe, dark location away from street lights; allow at least 20 minutes for their eyes to adjust and watch as much of the sky as possible. A reclining chair and patience will make the experience more comfortable.
If Tipperary’s clouds cooperate, residents could witness two remarkable spectacles within a matter of hours; an almost vanished Sun in the evening and a stream of meteors after midnight.
Funeral Blues by the late British-American poet W.H. Auden (1907 – 1973).
W. H. Auden’s“Funeral Blues”, (Also known as “Stop all the clocks,” a reference to its first line), is a powerful poem that captures the overwhelming grief of losing a loved one. It first appearing in a 1936 play W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood called “The Ascent of F6”. The poem was later substantially rewritten and published in its familiar form in 1938.
Late W. H. Auden(1907 – 1973)
Through commanding language, stark imagery, and a movement from everyday surroundings to the wider universe, Auden portrays a speaker whose loss feels so immense that time, nature, and society itself should come to an immediate halt. The poem ultimately explores how bereavement can transform a once-meaningful world into one that seems almost empty and without hope.
Funeral Blues (Read here by award winning English character actor Simon Callow.)
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead’. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.
The Thurles Crokes A.C. Streets of Thurles 5K Road Race will take place on Sunday, 16th August 2026, from 10:00am to 11:30am.
Traffic Notice and Route: Streets of Thurles 5K Road Race.
Traffic restrictions and diversions will be in place throughout Thurles town for the duration of this popular event. Motorists should expect delays and are advised to allow extra time for their journeys or use alternative routes where possible.
International pop star Boy George, whose paternal family has strong connections with Thurles, Co. Tipperary has released a new song titled “We Will Dance Again”.
The Culture Club frontman; born George Alan O’Dowd in England, has spoken warmly about his Irish background. In a 2013 Hot Press interview, he said his father’s relatives were from Thurles, adding that his family visited Ireland regularly during his childhood.
George Alan O’Dowd – Boy George.
His new pop-reggae song was posted to X and Instagram under both its English title and the Hebrew title עוד נרקוד (Od Nirkod). Its central message supports Israel and Jewish communities following the Hamas-led attack of October 7th 2023.
The song refers particularly to the attack on the Nova music festival, where 344 civilians and 34 members of the security services were killed and 44 people were taken hostage. Its title adopts a phrase that became an expression of hope and resilience among Israelis following the massacre.
In the song, Boy George rejects allegations of genocide against Israel, characterises its military campaign as a response to the Hamas attack and declares: “I stand with the Jews.” He also criticises musicians and activists whom he believes have condemned Israel without adequately acknowledging the events of October 7th.
The release has generated sharply divided reactions. Supporters have praised Boy George for confronting antisemitism and remembering the Nova victims, while critics say the song disregards the enormous Palestinian death toll and the findings of UN inquiries concerning Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Israel rejects allegations that it has committed genocide.
Boy George is not Jewish but has frequently spoken about his affinity with Jewish people and his determination to support Jewish friends and communities. He has also said that this support does not mean he lacks compassion for Palestinians or agrees with everything happening in Israel.
For Thurles readers, the release carries an additional local point of interest; one of Britain’s most distinctive pop performers has openly identified the town as part of his extended O’Dowd family story.
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